World Rugby have issued a new Law Application Guideline aimed at helping tidy up a maul when players get in the ‘wrong’ side of it.
This was raised at the Shape of the Game meeting in March, and the outcome of those conversations has led to this guideline. They recognised that the area has been difficult for players to know what they can/can’t do, hard for referees to manage, and tricky to explain to viewers and fans. Those players often, after initially being effective as the maul sets up, they then become ineffective in the contest, on the ‘wrong’ side, and in the way of the ball being played away.
There is no change in law here, and World Rugby also explicitly stress the ongoing importance of the maul in the game. From a grassroots refereeing perspective (even at the elite end), we often see players who get into these iffy-looking scenarios but providing they don’t actually pull a player out of the maul, they’ve believed they can just loiter and disrupt, and we had to let that happen. This Guideline gives us the ‘ammunition’ to remove that player.
French experience
France’s Top14 and ProD2 have been trialling this as a closed trial this season and it’s already seen some positive actions and behaviours from players. Sources suggest that this hasn’t led to more penalties, as it’s had the desired intention of clearing things up, and then giving match officials the power to sanction if needs be.
Two key observables
World Rugby points to two key observables for players and match officials to observe
- The contest for the ball is over, and
- a player gets beyond the ball and/or into a pulling/dragging position.
If both things happen, then players should leave the maul and return to the offside line or rejoin the maul. Referees can manage them out, or then sanction of they need to.
If you use the still image on the left, this is a maul. Wales (in red) are playing left to right. The two Japan players circled in red are beyond the ball, have unbound (#3), or are in position to pull/drag (#7). They should leave, or can be asked to leave. The two players circled in green (#4 & #5) are in an active contest for the ball and can keep on doing so.
There may also be times when teams try and swing round the maul as it sets up in order to disrupt rather than contest. This is also flagged as a point teams should stop.
Key messages from the guideline
- The maul is a key contest for possession in rugby union in which both the attack and defence must comply with the law.
- Players must join (or rejoin) the maul by binding onto the hindmost player in the maul, not by creating a chain of two or more players and swinging up, or round, the side.
- Any player bound on the outside of the maul, may contest possession with their other arm, or may continue pushing/driving on the maul, but must not be in a position to pull/drag the maul.
- Once a player loses dominance and moves to be in a position to drag or pull, they should remove themselves from the contest or will be liable to sanction.
- Players must leave the maul if they become unbound or are not in a position to push/drive.
- “Bound” means with the whole arm in contact from hand to shoulder.
Video examples
The video shows some good examples:
The full guideline can be found here (link to World Rugby)
RugbyReferee.net opinion: This Guideline gives formal back-up to referees who have always refereed the maul in this way, or have wanted to but didn’t feel they have law cover to do so. The trials in France seem to have made a difference and mauls have become tidier – but are still an active contest in their game. This fees like a positive fix which can be applies easily, no matter if we’re on our own in the community game, or operating in the elite game. Given that most mauls come from lineouts, we’d hope to see some more active management of those players who leave the line early in order to set up the maul as the ball carrier lands. This had a focus a few years ago, but does seem to have slipped a little.
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